John Riley (10 October 1937 – 27 or 28 October 1978)^[1] was a poet who was associated with theBritish Poetry Revival.^[2]

Riley was born and raised in Leeds, and was educated atWest Leeds High School.^[3] He served in theRoyal Air Force from 1956 to 1958 before studying English as anexhibitioner atPembroke College, Cambridge, graduating in 1961.^[1][3][4] He then worked as a teacher in various schools around the Cambridge area. During this period, he became acquainted with many of the poets who constituted theCambridge group, a key element of the Revival.

He left Cambridge in 1966 to take up a teaching post inBicester, nearOxford.^[1] That same year, he set up the Grosseteste Press with his friend Tim Longville. The pair started a magazine,Grosseteste Review, two years later. Riley retired from teaching in 1970 and returned to Leeds to write full-time. In 1977, he was received into theEastern Orthodox Church. He was murdered in an incident near his home on the night of 27–28 October 1978.^[5][6]

Riley was influenced byCharles Olson andOsip Mandelstam, whose poetry he translated into English. His first book,Ancient and Modern, was published in 1967 and the posthumousThe Collected Works in 1980. The latter includes the first full printing of his major long poem,Czargrad, a work that reflected his religious outlook and preoccupation with Russian and Byzantine culture.^[2][5] A collection ofSelected Poems was published byCarcanet Press in 1995.

• 1937 births
• 1978 deaths
• British Poetry Revival
• Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
• 20th-century English poets
• English male poets
• 20th-century English male writers
• 21st-century English male writers

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